Stanford Facts: Campus Life
Stanford Housing
Stanford University is a residential teaching and research university. About 6,105 undergraduates and about 4,320 graduate students live on campus, allowing for a blending of academic and residential life. Undergraduate campus housing is guaranteed for four years for entering freshmen. Approximately 95 percent of all undergraduates registered at the home campus live in on-campus housing, with 5 percent residing at overseas campuses or the Bing Stanford in Washington Program.
The undergraduate housing system includes 78 very diverse residential facilities, including academic-focus, language and culture, and cross-cultural houses; student-managed row-type houses; apartments; suites; and traditional residence halls. Faculty or senior staff serve as live-in resident fellows in residences that house first-year students, in academic-focus houses and in some houses for upperclassmen. About 13 percent of students join one of the 17 fraternities or 12 sororities recognized on campus. Seven fraternities and three sororities offer housing. Stanford Dining serves about 3,250,000 meals annually.
Housing on campus for graduate students consists of university-owned apartments, residence halls and spaces in cooperative houses. Graduate students also live in university off-campus housing. Overall, about 54 percent of graduate students live in university housing.
Student Organizations and Student Government
About 590 organized student groups are recognized at Stanford, covering a range of interests: academic, international, political, environmental, religious, ethnic, social, community service and recreational. Student publications include The Stanford Daily newspaper. The Associated Students of Stanford University is the representative government for Stanford students.
Lively Arts and Aurora Forum
Stanford offers many cultural programs open to the public. They include Stanford Lively Arts, which sponsors music, dance and theater performances by world-famous artists, and Aurora Forum, a free public lecture series focused on public hope. Lively Arts also offers master classes, extended residencies, workshops, lecture/demonstrations and group discussions, as well as community programs. Aurora Forum programs also air on KQED Public Radio. Call (650) 725-ARTS (2787) for Lively Arts or call (650) 725-5633 for the Aurora Forum.
Religious Life
There are 40 recognized religious organizations on the Stanford campus. In addition to a wide range of Christian groups, there are the Hillel Foundation and Chabad, the Islamic Society, the Baha’i Association, the Hindu Student Council, the Unitarian Universalists, the Buddhist Community and the World Peace Buddhists. The Center for Inter-Religious Community, Learning and Experiences (CIRCLE) is located in Old Union. Memorial Church, the heart of the university, was one of the earliest and is still among the most prominent interdenominational churches in the West. The university’s support of the Office for Religious Life presumes that faith and spiritual quest are consonant with the academy’s most vital pursuits of meaning and purpose. Call (650) 723-1762 or visit http://religiouslife.stanford.edu.
Public Service
The Haas Center for Public Service is a resource for many service opportunities, including summer and postgraduate fellowships, advising on postgraduate service and job opportunities, integration of service experience with classroom learning, community-based research, community programs and public service leadership development. The center provides support for 20 staffed programs and numerous community service student organizations and coordinates faculty, who offer more than 50 service-learning courses and community-based research projects. For more information, call the Haas Center at (650) 723-0992.
More than 70 voluntary community service student organizations, special projects and school-based programs provide undergraduates and graduate students with additional opportunities to serve. They include the Stanford Community Law Clinic in East Palo Alto; the Stanford Medical School’s Office of Community Health; Stanford Athletics’ Community Outreach Program; and the School of Engineering’s Office of Engineering and Public Service. Stanford’s eight community centers and four ethnic theme houses offer outreach programs that provide educational services for disadvantaged youth, language assistance and cultural events.
Campus Safety
The Stanford University Department of Public Safety is a multi-service agency providing law enforcement, security, safety, crime prevention and emergency services on the Stanford campus 24 hours a day. Public Safety employs sworn personnel holding the rank of deputy sheriff, sergeant, lieutenant, captain and chief, as well as non-sworn community service officers, special events personnel and support staff. The Stanford Safety and Security Almanac is provided to the campus community in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Crime Statistics Act. Please see http://police.stanford.edu for more information. Public Safety is located at 711 Serra Street, next to the Fire Station at the corner of Campus Drive and Serra Street. The business phone number is (650) 723-9633.
Getting Around
Biking is one the most popular forms of on-campus transportation, and Stanford provides 12,000 bicycle parking spaces to meet cyclists’ needs. Although freshmen may not bring cars to campus, the extensive, free Marguerite shuttle system provides alternative transportation, and Zipcar is another option. For more information, call the Parking & Transportation Services office at (650) 723-9362, or visit http://transportation.stanford.edu.
Stanford Traditions
Big Game
The annual football game against the University of California Berkeley Golden Bears is Big Game. It is preceded by Gaieties, a student-produced musical follies.
Full Moon on the Quad
Freshmen are kissed at midnight by seniors under the first full moon of Autumn Quarter.
